Archive for April, 2011

You may have heard the old expression April Showers bring May Flowers, and baseball players have experienced a similar phenomenon as that saying. April had a lot of rain delays in the northeast, and many players, who we all hoped would have great 2011 have had poor Aprils. But the good thing (to some the bad thing) about baseball is that there is 6 months in the season, 162 games. April is just 1/6 of the season, so a players poor April can mean very little by season’s end. Baseball is a game of patience, perserverance, and a little luck. Take a look at these players from last year who had terrible April’s but bounced back in May.

David Ortiz (Bos-util) Last April Ortiz looked like he was playing in his final days. This is what his numbers looked like in April; .143 BA, 5 r, 1 HR, 4 rbi, and 0 sb. Ortiz didn’t want his playing days to be finished so he made his presence known in May putting up Big Papi like numbers…if I remember right he even had 3 game winning rbis after the 7th inning in May. Here is what his May looked like; .363 BA, 16 r 10 HR, 27 rbi, and 0 SB.

Matt Cain (SF-SP) Cain’s April wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t what many expected. He was supposed to continue his progression of being the 2nd guy behind Timmy. His April was a medoicre, 0 W, 3.80 era, 1.19 WHIP, and only 16 K’s in 4 games started. His May however made him seem like the person most expected. In 6 May starts he recorded 3 W, 1.8 era, 0.9 WHIP, and 35 K’s.

Hunter Pence (Hou-OF) Pence had early season struggles but all of the Astros did last April. Pence has always had a little bit of a streaky bat, but his April numbers were pretty low, .232 BA, 11 r, 2 HR, 7 rbi, 2 sb. Good thing for Pence is that he turned it on in May and made those who were patient with him rewarded, .302 BA, 15 r, 6 HR, 16 rbi, 3 sb.

So there is a couple of examples of guys whose terrible Aprils turned into huge May numbers. I’m sure if you did a little digging you would find 10-15 more examples of the same thing. The good news is since it happened last year, and the year before, and probably since the start of MLB’s existence you can almost guarantee that it will happen with players this season, and these are the guys I think could easily do the same this season.

Red Sox nation is hoping to see a lot more of that smile in May.

Carl Crawford (Bos-OF)Carl is one of many Red Sox I could have put on here, but his April numbers have been hard to look at. He has never had a season in which he, hit under .280, had less than 45 sb, or less than 80 runs (if you don’t count his injury riddled ’08 or his rookie season). I expect Carl to have a great May and if he doesn’t then I honestly don’t know what to tell you.

Dan Uggla (Atl-2B) I expected big things from Uggla this season, but his April is making me look like a fantasy bum instead of a fantasy “expert.” Don’t lose hope Uggla has had 30 HR, 100 RBI seasons for the last 4 seasons, so I expect him to turn it on in April. Plus the whole Atlanta offense hasn’t clicked yet, and I fully expect them to be a potent offense this season. His line as of now is just .176 BA, 7 r, 4 HR, 7 rbi, 1 sb. Uggla should have a much better May so continue to be patient with him.

Yovani Gallardo (Mil-SP) Gallardo’s April has been pretty bad, 2 W, 4.88 era, 1.40 WHIP, 20 k’s. Considering he has been a fairly dependable fantasy asset the last several seasons. He is a double digit win guy with 200 plus K’s and right now his April numbers don’t look like he will get there, but The Brewers staff is starting to get healthy and I have a feeling the will feed off of each other’s success so expect Gallardo’s May to pay big dividends.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog, and spread the news to your fellow fantasy mates about the Hombre. If you can think of any 2010 April-May examples let me know in the comment section, or give any players who you think will bounce back after a poor April. Hope you enjoy the post, and I will be trying to do a weekly post now that the season has actually gotten into full swing.

I haven’t done a post in like three weeks, for that I apologize. But as I promised I wanted to do one more fantasy basketball post. So the NBA has an MVP award they give every year, and sometimes it is given to the best player of they year, sometimes it is given to the best story of the year, and other times it is actually given to the most “valuable” player. In fantasy basketball value is a tough thing to measure because a players value can depend on the settings of your league and the way you built your team, but in this post I am going to give my most valuable players by position. I won’t be saying who put the best numbers up because that is to easy, but instead I will be looking at where a person was drafted, the stats they put up, and a comparison of their stats to the other players at their position. So there may be some players who surprise you, but I will give an explanation of why I picked them over their counterparts. And now the FBMVPs.

PG-Derrick Rose– Rose had a great year both on the real court and on the fantasy court. I put him as the MVP for PG simply because he exceeded expectations for where he was getting drafted. He was normally getting drafted late third to as late as early 5th. He was around the 8-12 PG taken and finished as a top 5 option at PG. He shot .445% from the field, over 85% from the FT line, 1.6 3’s, 25 pts, 4.1 reb, 7.7 ast, 1 stl, 0.6 blk, and 3.4 to. His only things that hurt you throughout the season was high turnover rate and his mediocre FG%. But considering he was drafted so late among PGs he is this year MVP of the PG.

Honorable mention: Russell Westbrook, Monta Ellis, Chris Paul

SG-Kevin Martin-We all know lil K-Mart can score, but he had an excellent year. For the most part Martin was going as a 2 SG for most teams. Considering he was going as a late 7th-early 8th rounder. He made those that drafted him look very smart this year. His FG% was a little lower than most would want .433, but he got to the line alot and shot almost 89%, he had about 9 FT a game. So his value in FT% helped owners overlook the mediocre FG%. He posted over 2 3’s a game, and over 23 pts. He even put up 3 reb and ast a game. There were a lot of surprises from the SG position, and if Gordon didn’t have that midseason wrist injury he would have ran away with this award, but K-Mart was consistent and gets my MVP of the SG.

Honorable mention: Paul Pierce, Eric Gordon, Tony Allen

SF-Dorrell Wright-Wright had a monster season this year, and I’m pretty sure no one expected him to do what he did. Sure some guys that got him in the 13th round thought they would get better production than that. But he performed like a top 30 player for most of the year. During some stretches he was getting over 3 3’s a game. He had less than 2 TO a game while getting you a blk and 1.5 stl. He had some games where he didn’t show up, but he isn’t an all-star type player so he wasn’t expected to carry a fantasy team. He ended the season making 2.4 3’s, getting over 16 pts, with 5 reb. Quality line for a 13th pick, which earns Wright my MVP for the SF.

Honorable mention: Rudy Gay, Lamar Odom, Kevin Durant (Homer pick)

PF-Kevin Love-The NBA’s Most Improved Player is the MVP of the PF. I think we have all heard some of the monster stats Love put up this year. averaged over 15 reb a game (which is insane), scored over 20 pts a game, made 1.2 3’s a game (which is awesome at the PF position), and got you 2.5 ast. He didn’t get you any D stats, but since his %’s were both good, it made up for it. Love had 50 something straight double-doubles. In most drafts he wasn’t taken till the 4th or 5th round, so this was a no-brainer for MVP of the PF. But the honorable mentions had great seasons too.

Honorable mention: Serge Ibaka, Blake Griffin, Paul Milsap

C-Al Horford-Center had a lot of good options but Horford was my pick because he contributed in all but 3’s. He was taken around 35 in most drafts so a mid 3rd rounder…I’ll let the numbers do the talking for me. 0.557 FG, 0.798 FT, 15.3 pts, 9.3 reb, 3.5 ast, 0.8 stl, 1.0 blk, and 1.5 TO. So his D numbers weren’t spectacular, but he gave over 3 ast a game from the C position. That is Awesome, ast are hard to get and when your center can get you over 3 you take it every time. He finished as a top 15 player in most player rankings, plus he would be a great rotto player too. Horford is my MVP of the C.

Honorable mention: LaMarcus Aldridge, Zach Randolph, Elton Brand

Surprise Player of the Year-Kyle Lowry-Lowry wasn’t expected to get to much playing time but an Aaron Brooks injury opened the door for Lowry and he ran through it without ever looking back. In fact he played well enough for Houston to just trade away Brooks. Lowry was a top 20 player the last month and a half of the regular season. If his fg% could have gone north of .420 he would have been the best PG the final month. He was averaging 2.1 3’s, 16 pts, 4.5 reb, 7.7 ast, 1.1 stl, 91% ft, and less than 2 TO. He had a great season and I would expect he would go as a top 10 PG at the start of next year’s drafts.

Honorable mention: Marcin Gortat, Landry Fields

Worst Player of the Year:Ron Artest-Ron Artest wasn’t being drafted like he was going to have a great year, but he put career worst in just about every category. He put up semi decent ast, and stl numbers, but other than that Artest was just “Turrible man” (Charles Barkley voice). I just let you see his end of the season line so you can decide if Artest was bad, or awful! .397 fg%, .676 ft%, 1 3, 8.5 pts, 3.3 reb, 2.1 ast, 1.5 stl, 0.4 blk, and 1.1 to. Congrats Ron Artest you are the 2010-2011 worst fantasy player of the year!

Honorable mention: Hedo Turkoglu, Danny Granger

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